Aurei of Westmark -- Book 1 Chronicles of Aurei

Duke Gamel Bugley took a big chance when he found the Drow baby in the wreckage of the Elven coach, floating in Westmark's millpond. Now, 73 years later, the Duke is near death and lacking an heir. Will Aurei, now a blossoming young woman working in Gamel's tavern, 'The Muddy Boot', be able to survive without the Duke's protection, as the town is threatened by the shadowy minions of the Necromancer's Guild?
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For a long while he wasn't sure he was free of the demon or even
alive. He was on damp earth and finally, weakly, he had turned
his head and found that he was outside, on the surface world and
it was evening. He was terrified, never having been on the
surface world, but having heard horror stories of the dangers.
But there he had laid, his body extremely weak from weeks without
food. The supernatural healing he had received during his
possession had taken care of the major portion of his many
injuries, but plenty remained in partial stages of healing and
now they further weakened his battered form. Scared and shaking
from pain, he had crawled across the broken ground until he
collapsed at the doorway of a stone building.

***

With a start, Eleazar came awake, blinking back the vivid dream
and looking around at the peaceful night as he calmed himself.
Wiping the sweat from his brow, his conscious mind briefly
reflected on what had happened after his arrival on the surface.

The building had been the Shrine of John Silvus, an early leader
and martyr of Yesh, guarded by the Knights of the Blood Cross or
Blood Knights as they were commonly called. Surprised to find a
half-elf/half-Drow youth on their doorstep with moderate injuries
and half-starved, they took the scared boy and healed him, then
sent him off with the elders of the order, to be raised as an
orphan by the knights of the order until he began his training as
a squire.

Since that time he had lived and served among the Blood Knights
rising in rank until he was one of their captains. He had
encountered Drow in Aeropolis and though they were certainly
believers in Yesh, their women - and especially Matron Zeatt- had
the air that was typical of Drow females - the confident,
flirtatious sense of femininity that reminded him so much of the
Grumet women. He had no other option but to leave the city.
So he had led four crusades into the Underdark to destroy the
power of the Drow that lurked nearest the surface communities and
free their slaves.

But now he had encountered a different Drow woman. Or more
accurately, a Drow girl, for though he was only 90 years old and
by Drow standards still a 'teenager', she had just reached her
time as a young woman. She was certainly a daughter of a noble
family, for her beauty and form was not that of the common Drow.
Yet that only made him remember the torture of his mother more
vividly, and while he knew it was not logical to be filled with
rage at the young Drow woman, when he saw her, he felt the
emotions flow over him.

This was what alarmed him the most, for when he had seen her
standing over the guardsman with her sword seemingly ready to
strike off his head, it was almost as if the same surge of power
that had filled him years before had filled him again, causing
him to rage again. This greatly concerned him, for he had no
desire to be brought into submission by emotions and certainly
not by an otherworldly force.

Still, he had wronged the girl and she was certainly not an
Underdark Drow in her mannerisms. Could he overcome his hatred
of the Drow to run a branch of the Order in her duchy?

Eleazar sighed, sitting up and then getting to his feet to try to
occupy his mind with something else so he could once again find
sleep. He was about to check on his horse when he sensed
something was nearby. The crickets suddenly stopped chirping
and his horse began to snort and paw at the ground, feeling it
too. The Knight quickly drew his sword, scanning the darkness
for what was out there. He saw it only at the last minute,
something large charging up from a small copse of trees near
where he had set up camp. It was large and at first he thought
it might be a small dragon, until its form blasted into the
campfire light. He recognized the form, though he had never
encountered one before. The tales told to him by those that had
fought it, made his blood run cold with dread of the upcoming
fight. For the creature leaping now as it tried to knock down
his horse was none other then one of the legendary
Ah'ndengin-mat.

Eleazar quickly slashed the tied reins of his horse and his steed
at once bolted, avoiding the crashing attack of the monster by an
instant. The monstrosity didn't pause, though, and completely
ignoring the Paladin, sprang forward, knocking him to the ground
as it plowed past him. He rolled to avoid the clawed feet of
the beast as it passed over him and mercifully he was uninjured.
By the time he leapt to his feet, his horse was galloping toward
the Elven forest, with the Ah'ndengin-mat fairly close behind the
fleet-footed steed.

Cursing his luck, he quickly donned his plate armor, hurrying as
fast as possible, but it took time to buckle everything on, and
he watched in frustration as his mount ran into the thick woods,
to be followed a few moments later by the determined, but stupid
monster.

Long minutes later he was running across the expanse between his
camp and the edge of the old forest, his Drow eyesight seeing
clearly in the bright moonlit night as a human would at noontime
on a sunny day. He absolutely did not want to enter the
Faesidhe forest, knowing with complete certainty the reception he
would receive when he was intercepted by the Faesidhe scouts
patrolling the forest. But his horse was far too valuable and
important to give him up, and Eleazar had an equally strong
desire to destroy the extremely dangerous Ah'ndengin-mat before
more were killed and eaten by the beast. So without a moment's
pause, but with a breathed prayer to Yesh for protection, he
raced into the forest, easily following the large path the
monster had made as it plowed dumbly along, hunting the horse.